We usually try someone out for a month as an independent contractor before hiring. We also have a policy against using phones at work. We are a retail store. Phones are ok at lunch time, but otherwise they must be kept in their locker. If you don’t want ppl to use their phones, might be good to enforce a policy? Technically, they aren’t doing anything “wrong”. Also, have a conversation before firing them. They should have a right to know and time to correct their mistakes before getting fired.

I would recommend not doing anything for free, but if you really want to, maybe cater family/friends’ events? If the family and friend has a large following on instagram on Tiktok, even better. They can post on their page and you can start getting followers. Samples may be ok, but you’re running a business and not a charity. I also feel it devalues the product. Social media presence for small biz is the way to go.

💯 I may have scared one of the other customers. 😓

Agree and relate 100%.

Lucky! Stay far away 🥲 Do not recommend.

Lol using their language back at them is a good tactic. It wasn’t a large purchase so my first instinct wasn’t that she was trying to scam, but it really was strange how defensive she got. After interacting with so many different people at the shop, I definitely do get “vibes” or whatever you want to call it and something was really off about her. Another thing is, if she is a flight attendant like she said and was just traveling through, wouldn’t she have to have an id? How is she going to get through TSA? Was so weird and hope I never have to see her again.

Everything just felt off from the moment she walked in. She seems like the type that’s used to getting her way. Either way, I’m glad we didn’t go through with the purchase and hopefully the experience will keep her away.

Thanks. I really do think of myself as mostly even tempered. I can contain myself in most instances, but my tolerance at getting verbally abused or harassed is way short and I get tunnel vision and react even before I can rationalize what’s happening. I saw in another reply you have experience growing up in an abusive household too and were able to overcome the anger issues. Glad you’re in a good place and thank for sharing. Is there something that worked better for you to overcome the anger? When I was going to therapy I had the opposite problem, which was I just held all emotion in and never showed anything, never said anything and it seems now it’s the opposite.

😆 This is the first thing I thought when the lady left. Thanks for the comment and making me lol. I definitely could have handled the situation better, but i’m hoping this would make her think twice before cursing at retail workers in the future.

Thanks. Will definitely try and omit the curse words in the future.

Very true. I have a hard time with that. Going to look into getting some help to get a better handle on my anger.

Right? That’s what I thought. I would imagine flight attendants are all about following rules and procedures. 🤷 I don’t have a sign and another poster had mentioned that I should put one up too which is a great idea. Going to on Monday morning. I feel like I have so many signs tho🙈

Thanks for the advice. I don’t have a sign posted. Will do first thing monday am!

💯 Very true. Diagnosed with ptsd from growing up in an abusive household. May have to start up therapy again to get a hold of the anger issues. Before, I would just seethe and stay quiet trying to be the “bigger person”, but I’m sure there is a healthy middle ground.

Yes, we ID anyone making a non pin verified purchase. Even our regulars. I tried to keep my cool for the first minutes, but she kept dodging showing her ID. She used excuses like “I forgot my ID and I’m just traveling through.” “I’m a flight attendant. I come here every couple months. I would never steal” and my fav. one “I’m Chinese” as if race has anything to do with it. I kept telling her that we check for non pin verified purchases and she called me an ass and I said “seriously?” and she said “Yea, well you are.” At first I told her to get out (without cursing) and she refused to. That’s when all hell broke loose and I called her a b and told her to gtfo.

agree. Definitely could have handled the situation better. sigh

But i definitely could have handled the situation at the moment and very well may be an AH

I did try for a while to explain to her that all purchases that are not pin verified require an id. She kept dodging showing her id and said things like “Well i’m a flight attendant. I wouldn’t steal”. I said “well i’m sure you have airline policies that you follow and i’m just following store procedure here.” Then at one point she said “Well I’m Chinese” and again I told her we ID anyone that is paying without a pin verified transaction. I guess she thought I would slide on the policy bc of her race? 🥴

Yes, definitely. 20/20 in hindsight. I grew up in an abusive household and diagnosed with ptsd. When a stranger cursed at me I got triggered before I even could control it.

We ID all credit purchases if the purchase is not a pin verified transaction.